Iconic Dive Bar Tony Jaros Gets a Josh Thoma Kitchen

Outside Tony Jaro's

Well, hoist a Greenie high, chums! This is NOT a story about another dive bar being redeveloped into condos. It's a story about how a tiny kitchen might keep a dive bar going for another 60 years. OK we'll take 20, we'll need a nap after all those Greenies.

Nick O'Leary and Josh Thoma with their Greenies

Nick O'Leary and Josh Thoma with their Greenies.

Josh Thoma and Nick O'Leary have signed on to take over the kitchen of iconic Nordeast watering hole Tony Jaros River Garden: Home of the Greenie. Longtime chef Bitsy Jaros has retired after 22 years of cooking at the bar, which sits across from Betty Dangers on Marshall, and the owners were looking for someone to run the small kitchen. They'd heard of what Thoma did at The 1029 Bar by running his Smack Shack concept from that bar's kitchen starting in 2010, so after a conversation and a handshake, the deal was done.

Thoma and O'Leary will officially launch Burger Dive at Tony Jaros today at 5pm. Pretty easy folks: it's burgers, at a dive bar. "We wanted to keep it simple, but really good. We cleaned out the kitchen and brought in some new equipment that included a new 4ft. griddle, so we're ready to smash some patties," Thoma told me. If you haven't been, Jaros is a classic corner bar, with one long 50 seat room anchored by a worn wooden center bar, which holds 31 of those seats. And Jaros bar is a split level: the coveted higher seats on the North side usually fill with regulars first. Opened in 1960 by local basketball hero Tony Jaros, the bar is still run by his kids.

Prepping burgers in the kitchen

O'Leary worked a few shifts with Bitsy to get the feel for the space, and while they've created a whole new menu, they know they have some regulars to keep happy, and will thusly do their best with the much-loved pork tenderloin sandwich (which, on their menu, is named Bitsy). Other than that, it's a short menu of griddled burgers that will be served in baskets from 11am to midnight, six days a week (the bar is closed on Sundays). "We'll do 6-8 burgers, we're going to grind the meat here, it's a special blend with a little bit of butter in there," O'Leary told me. "We'll do some funky cool stuff, we'll get an Impossible burger in there, but really we're planning to stick to the classics. Smash burger style, 4 oz patties, American cheese, pickles in there, and a nice gooey little bun that brings the meat and cheese to your face." That's all it has to do. There's also bar food: a pierogi, fresh pretzels, curds, and a couple of sandwiches, maybe a blue plate special. But hey, that kitchen is small.

Cheese burger with chips

It's really important to these guys to honor the bar, they know it's a place that means something to the neighborhood. "Look, this is just me and Nick," Thoma said, "we're the ones who will be working here every day. If Nick's not here, I will be making the burgers." The kitchen is a separate business from the bar business, so when you sit down, you'll order your Greenie from the bartender and if you want food, they'll buzz the kitchen and let them know to come out and take your order. It will be two tabs and the whole joint runs on cash only, be aware (there is an ATM on site).

Of course after a few Greenies, one starts to believe that, like Smack Shack, this might be a concept that has legs. Thoma and O'Leary (and third partner Kevin Fitzgerald) don't have another site planned, per se, but no one is counting it out.

Wait, you don't know what a Greenie is? Guess you'll have to go experience the limey punch in the face on your own, with a burger. Bring cash. And a driver.

Tony Jaros River Garden / 2500 Marshall St NE, Mpls., 612-789-9728

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Food and Dining editor Stephanie March writes and edits Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Eat + Drink section. She can also be heard Saturdays on her myTalk107.1 radio show, Weekly Dish, where she talks about the Twin Cities food scene.

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